In peer to peer systems, e.g., ad hoc peer to peer systems, resource utilization is normally controlled by individual peer devices often without the aid of a centralized controller commonly used in more conventional cellular networks. Various approaches to resource selection may be taken with the selection of resources being performed by the individual devices or sets of communications peers which are communicating in a manner that is intended to avoid collisions, e.g., multiple nearby devices transmitting on the same communications resource at the same time.
Resource selection techniques, which may include selecting sets of resources to use from a large set of possible communications resources, e.g., sets of tone-symbols or codes, reduce the risk that two nearby transmissions will collide. However, collisions may still occur. Since devices can select from a large number of different sets of resources, in many cases, even when there is a collision, only a small portion of the resources being used by the two devices will overlap resulting in a collision of only a portion of the signals being transmitted by the devices at a given time.
Unfortunately, collisions on resources, e.g., tone symbols on which energy detection is being applied, e.g., for purposes of channel estimation or for purposes of positional decoding, can result in errors when attempting to measure the strength of a received signal or when trying to detect the presence of signal energy corresponding to a signal of interest on a communications resource.
In view of the above discussion, it should be appreciated there is a need for methods and apparatus which can be used to process pilot signals received from a peer device with which the receiving device is trying to communicate. It would be desirable if the receiving device was able to generate useful results, e.g., a channel estimate, SIR, SNR or some other useful value such as a suggested transmission rate.